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Yesterday, CSX Corp. announced 61 winners of its 18th annual Chemical Safety Excellence Award, which recognizes shippers’ efforts to ensure hazardous material transportation safety through proper loading and rail-car maintenance processes. The recipients include 24 repeat winners, CSX officials said in a prepared statement.

To qualify for the award, a customer must ship more than 600 carloads of hazardous materials on CSX during the year without a non-accidental release, which could occur during loading or offloading procedures, or be caused by improperly secured car valves.

“All of our award winners share CSX's intense focus on the safe transportation of chemical products," said Clarence Gooden, CSX’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer.  

Meanwhile, more than 60,000 emergency responders in 37 states recently received training in the safe handling and distribution of anhydrous ammonia through the Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response (TRANSCAER®) program. The voluntary national outreach program aims to help communities prepare for and respond to potential hazardous material transportation incidents.  

Launched in spring 2011, the anhydrous ammonia training tour focuses on such topics as ammonia properties, transportation protocol, equipment handling and emergency response. The tour focuses on regions of the country where the use of anhydrous ammonia in agriculture and refrigeration applications is more prevalent.

TRANSCAER plans to continue the tour through 2012 by continuing to work with The Fertilizer Institute and more than 200 volunteers from chemical manufacturers, transportation industry leaders, distributors, and federal, state and local government agencies.